Gold surged 3.3% or nearly $50 from $1,248/oz to $1,298/oz after
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke admitted that the U.S. economy
continues to need a highly accommodative monetary policy and will do for
the “foreseeable future”.

Gold climbed for a
fourth day to the highest level in more than two weeks due to safe
haven buying after Bernanke also admitted, what many more realistic
analysts have been saying for some time, that the 7.6% unemployment rate
probably "overstates the health of the labor market."

Gold’s record 23% fall last quarter was attributed to Bernanke’s
“jawboning” when he again claimed that the Fed would reduce its $85
billion of monthly asset purchases this year. Minutes of that meeting
released yesterday showed many officials wanted to see more signs that
employment is improving before backing a trim to bond buying.

This is gold bullish and suggests that gold’s recent fall is overdone.

Record high gold borrowing costs due to significant physical demand, especially in China and much of Asia, continues.

Although Bernanke’s comments are the ostensible reason for gold’s
price rise, a more fundamental reason, and less reported upon, is likely
to be the continuing decline of COMEX gold inventories.

Bullion buyers internationally and particularly in Asia are taking
delivery of physical gold which is draining inventories on the COMEX.
COMEX inventories fell another 1.5% yesterday (see table).

Brinks has seen a massive decline in its gold inventories in recent
days. The huge decline in Brinks inventories is being seen soon after a
similar decline in JP Morgan’s gold inventories.

Brinks inventories have fallen from 570,000 ounces on July 3rd to
257,000 ounces today which is a drop of 313,000 ounces - a drop of 55%
in just one week.

The entire inventories on the COMEX, of bullion banks and
depositories is now just 7.096 million ounces and is worth just $9.1
billion at today’s prices. This is a very small amount vis á vis the
amount of money in stocks, bonds, cash and other assets today throughout
the world and in Asia where much of the gold seems to be flowing East.

This has all the hallmarks of a ‘run’ on the COMEX and needs to be
monitored. A default on the COMEX would see the price of physical gold
rise substantially and potentially in a very short period of time.

the fire sale for gold below 1300. needs to continue for at least another month so all us coinnuts may obtain the beautiful new buffalo reverse proof from the mint at a great price. I just can't help myself imacoinnut.

It's going to be awful for all of us, and these things always drag on longer than anybody expects. We just prepare as best we can and hope that some of the psychopaths face justice somewhere along the way.

first off hat tip to me for an excellent gold call. I think perma bulls(hitters) such as this should be ignored of course...and I would cover the long position as well. I'll still on the fence about covering the long on treasuries I recommitted to when we had the dramatic sell off the past six weeks "with all the attendant wackos celebrating this news." I still maintain my out of the money long bet (and it is a bet and that is exactly as I advertised I might add) at this point. simply put without silver moving with gold that says to me "pure speculation"...but obviously speculative bets can move quite high when enough liquidity providers are involved. (most of them have been totally killed the past six weeks.) more importantly oil FELL on the news. the clear market manipulation going on in oil markets is so blatant it's really hard not to call the fraud Government created. still...that is the Government. if their preference is to have HFT's said energy policy then so be it. obviously something conforming to actual fundamentals is preferable in the long run to me...something more akin to what's happening in the natural gas market ironically enough. but liquidity providers need liquidity so I won' argue with the capitalists here either. "they are capitalists after all."

I would LOVE to see Crimex default on gold. I can only hope their smack-down backfired in earnest, but I'm sceptical.

I assume the PTB can order one of the PIIGS to sell a few hundred tons of gold for freshly minted Euros, to keep the game going. Still us gold bugs gotta love the idea that the manipulators have bitten off more than they can chew.